Ibero-American News Digest
Chile, Brazil Offer Port Access to Bolivia
Dec. 18 (EIRNS)Offering economic development as the solution, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and Brazilian President Lula da Silva made an 11th-hour diplomatic intervention to support Bolivian President Evo Morales, at a moment when this impoverished nation is threatened with territorial dissolution and race war, as per the scenario put out by Dick Cheney's American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
The two members of the Ibero-American "Presidents' Club" arrived in Bolivia Dec. 15 for the signing of the "Declaration of La Paz" to build a bi-oceanic corridor. This is a 4,000 km highway that will connect the Brazilian port of Santos on the Atlantic, pass through Santa Cruz in Bolivia, and then link to the Chilean cities of Arica and Iquique, both ports through which landlocked Bolivia can import and export goods.
In contrast to the extreme internal political tensions and polarization, the two Presidents offered an optimistic vision of the future, in which investments the highway construction will benefit Bolivians with jobs, higher living standards, and greater economic and cultural integration with their two neighboring countries.
Bachelet's intervention is particularly important given the history of conflict that Great Britain has orchestrated between the two countries, dating back to the 1879-81 War of the Pacific, in which Bolivia lost its Pacific Coast territory to Chile. Since taking office, Bachelet has very deliberately reached out to Bolivia, offering dialogue and economic cooperation. In this, her third visit there, she noted that, with this corridor, "the Atlantic and Pacific will cease to live physically with their backs to each other, and we shall find ourselves in a single embrace of humanity and fraternity."
On Dec. 18, the heads of state of the Common Market of the South (Mercosur), meeting in Montevideo, followed up with a statement rejecting "all violent actions, which seek to harm the stability of the government and other entities elected by the people," and urged "all political forces to maintain a climate of dialogue and understanding." The summit host, Uruguayan President Tabaré Vásquez, told the Bolivian government to be assured, "that, in the name of everyone here, you have the support of all the countries that make up the Mercosur."
Fernández: No Interference in Regional Integration
Dec. 18 (EIRNS)In accepting the position of President Pro Tempore of the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) today, Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner warned those who would interfere in the process of regional integration, that "we shall not be broken." In an unmistakable reference to the Bush Administration, which she has recently accused of launching "dirty tricks" against her government, President Fernández noted that such interference is to be expected from those who "apparently only want countries that are subordinates, or employees, and don't understand the policies of friendship that the nations of Latin America do understand.... We shall continue fighting for the strengthening of Mercosur, and for a multipolar world.... Unilateralism has only created tragedy, pain, and insecurity in today's world," she declared.
The combative new Argentine President remarked that, contrary to those who predicted that Mercosur was about to disappear, the customs union has survived the decade of neoliberalism. "If we survived that, it's clear that this Mercosur is not only in good health, it also has good antibodies." She challenged the Mercosur members to take up an agenda of "productive integration and reindustrialization," affirming that Argentina's process of economic and industrial growth could be replicated throughout the region. The group's character as a customs union (not a free-trade zone) must also be strengthened, she said. Decent jobs must be created, to ensure social mobility, and infrastructure projects must be built.
Kirchner to Bush: Argentina 'Is Not a Colony'
Dec. 20 (EIRNS)Former Argentine President Néstor Kirchner sharply attacked the Bush Administration on Dec. 18, over the Miami-based Federal prosecutor's recent charge that $800,000 smuggled into the country last August was a Venezuelan government attempt to fund the election campaign of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. "Argentina is not a colony. You must respect our justice system," he said.
The Argentine government charges that the U.S. Federal prosecutor's assertion is a "dirty operation" against the new President, and is demanding the U.S. extradite the individual who carried the suitcase full of cash into Argentina, Miami resident Guido Antonini Wilson. After Argentine customs officials seized the suitcase, Antonini fled the country and is now holed up in Miami, where Argentine officials charge he has become a "protected" U.S. government witness, rather than the person who committed a crime. Antonini holds both U.S. and Venezuelan citizenship.
Kirchner charged that the U.S. case is really motivated by its concern over the strengthening of Argentina's economic model, and "the creation of the Bank of the South," the new regional financing entity founded by seven Ibero-American Presidents in Buenos Aires Dec. 9.
The transparent fraudulence of the case has provoked a furor inside Argentina. Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana called U.S. Amb. Anthony Wayne into his office Dec. 18 to demand Antonini's extradition. Wayne was informed that he must henceforth limit his contacts to the Foreign Ministry. The U.S. "has offended us in a surprising and unfair manner," Taiana told Wayne.
It is noteworthy, that Uruguay's Foreign Minister Reinaldo Gargano offered his support to President Fernández, characterizing the Antonini affair as "a scheme intended to achieve conjunctural political results, for the purpose of harming the image of a person who had absolutely nothing to do with this."
IMF to Mexico: 'Your Oil Is Our Oil'
Dec. 17 (EIRNS)The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is happy Mexico had a "breakthrough year" in passing structural "reforms"the kind the IMF likes, like stealing people's pensionsin 2007, but now the time has come to put through energy "reform," IMF deputy director of the Western Hemisphere Department, David Robinson, told reporters on Dec. 13.
By "energy reform," the IMF means turning the national oil industry over to foreigners for looting. Lyndon LaRouche's contrary policy, which was shared by President José López Portillo (1976-1982) until the IMF staged a virtual coup d'état against his government, is for Mexico to develop and exchange its oil for nuclear energy technology, which would benefit not only Mexico but its major trading partners, such as the United States.
Robinson admitted that the IMF is no expert in the oil industry, but that didn't stop it from asserting in its annual review of Mexico's "performance," that oil producer Mexico will become a net importer of gasoline by 2012, if it doesn't let private interests in on the business. Ignoring decades of success in maintaining a highly qualified workforce since Mexico nationalized the oil from the cartels in 1938, the IMF argues that those poor Mexicans just don't have, and can't develop, the expertise or technology to develop the difficult deepwater oil fields which the IMF views as key for Mexico's finances.
Not to be outdone, the U.S. embassy in Mexico issued its own "expert" report on foreign investment in Mexico on Dec. 14, demanding that Mexico pass labor, education, and energy reforms, if it wants to keep foreign capital in the country. The report included the shocking fact, that Wal-Mart has now become the leading private sector employer in Mexico, with 150,000 employeesshowing just how destroyed Mexico's own industrial economy has become under the North American Free Trade Accord.
Mexican Farmers To Protest Lifting of Tariffs on Food Imports
Dec. 21 (EIRNS)Mexican farmers are declaring a "state of war" against implementation of the final stage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which, as of New Year's Day, requires the lifting of all remaining tariffs and quotas on corn, beans, milk, and sugar.
This fight has been brewing. Last March, EIR's Dennis Small was a special invited speaker at the national convention of the Cardenista Peasant Organization (CCC), where he presented Lyndon LaRouche's proposals for replacing NAFTA, as part of a global reorganization.
This week, CCC head Max Correa warned that some peasants could go as far as "to take the way of the arms and the guerrilla," to prevent 6 million corn, beans, and milk producers from being bankruptedtheir estimate of what this final stage of NAFTA will do. Correa demanded that the Mexican government re-negotiate NAFTA, to exclude corn, beans, and milk.
Víctor Suárez Carrera, from the National Council of Peasant Organizations, announced that his group will build a "human barrier" along the U.S.-Mexico border, and the PRI-linked National Peasant Confederation will start a national mobilization, street protests, and seizure of federal offices.
Mexican farmers have been deprived of every single protection under NAFTA since its implementation in 1994. They were driven off the land, and the result was a sharp drop in living standards, and a dramatic increase in the rate of immigration from Mexico to the United States.
Brazil Launches Joint Space Science Project with Argentina
Dec. 17 (EIRNS)Brazil successfully launched a suborbital sounding rocket, a VS30, yesterday, from its launch site in Rio Grande do Norte. On board the rocket, which flew for nine minutes and 25 seconds, were two microgravity experiments contributed by Argentina, and a Brazilian experiment. This was the first collaboration between these two nations on a space mission.
Ibero-America's two major space powers have had a space cooperation agreement in place since 1998. Argentina builds its own satellites and has a world-class space manufacturing capability. Brazil has specialized in remote-sensing technology, and is a leader in South America in teaching professionals how to use Earth remote-sensing data. Both Brazil and Argentina have developed rocket technology, and Brazil is building a major launch facility at Alcantara.
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